AT  MOSCOW LOMONOSOV STATE UNIVERSITY

The Center for Economic History (CEH) at Lomonossov State University in Moscow (MSU) is one of the leading centers in the field of economic history in the NIS. The Center is located at the Faculty of History at MSU.

The Russian-American Conference, "Economic History in Transition: Russia and America," was the final project for the MacArthur grant in support of new economic history in Russia. Organized by CEH and held at the Russian Academy of Sciences from June 23-25, 1995, the Conference will result in the publication of the papers (translateld into Russian), entitled "Economic History in the US: New Approaches" (eds. Leonid Borodkin and Carol S.Leonard) (forthcoming, September 1998).

The series of projects and initiatives developed over a number of years, as the activities of the CEH expanded. The CEH itself was created in 1994 (with support of the MacArthur grant; Prof Carol S.Leonard - Project Director). In the last four years, it has functioned as a graduate studies center, an educational resource for undergraduates and regional teachers of economic and social history, and a conference center with ongoing exchanges between the CEH and West European universities and with US scholars, supported by the Fulbright and other USIA (Moscow) grants.

1. Curriculum Development

Preceding the Russian-American Conference, one of its major achievements was the joint-sponsorship with the Institute for European Studies, of an MA program in economic history (1995-1996) and regular workshops. Another has been a working paper and publication series in economic history, and curricular development at Moscow State University. Making these achievements possible, the lecturers and researchers associated with the CEH travel abroad for training and to present papers, which they have published in Russian. These lecturers and scholars have achieved distinctions and grants: one was awarded an IREX fellowship to do research in economic history at the University of California at Davis, California (Dr. Tamara Izmestieva); others traveled for summer school to Harvard University, where they took graduate-level macro and microeconomics (Prof. Leonid Borodkin and Dr. Irina Garskova). One of graduate students, Aleksei Tikhonov, participated in summer seminar on economics and statistics in Holland (on the basis of ESTER program).

At the first stage of the CEH activities (winter and spring months of 1995), two visiting professors were invited to give lectures at the CEH. Dr. Eric Brian (from Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris) gave a short course on methods of computerized analysis in economic and social history research. Prof. Don K.Rowney (from Bowling Green State University, USA) gave lectures on the institutional approach in studies on economic history of Russia.

What has been achieved, is based on support of different foundations. For some of activities the CEH has attracted funding by MacArthur Foundation, USIA, the Volkswagen Foundation, the SOROS Foundation, and Russian State Foundations (RFBR and RFH).

In 1995-1997 the CEH organized lectures for visiting faculty, workshops in economic history, and special "schools" in economics, demography, and computing, to which foreign scholars are invited as lecturers. From new grants, CEH has found the way to provide advanced coursework beyond what the department is able to provide for its students. With a grant from the SOROS Foundation, CEH constructed a special program for graduate students, and the Director of CEH arranged for the economist, Paul Gregory, to give one of the courses on economic history in 1996.

Among the most important initiatives by the Center were the lectures and workshops organized throughout the year with the assistance of various foundations, including the USIA Speakers' Series. USIA covered travel and expenses of one distinguished scholar the first year and two the next two yers, each for two or three weeks of lecturing at the Center. The economic theorist Prof. Paul David of Oxford University and Stanford University came for ten days in June, 1994, on the USIA program. He gave the opening address for the Center, founded May 10, 1994. Prof. Roger Ransom of the University of California at Riverside came for two weeks in July, 1995, and gave lectures on U.S. economic history. Next fall, in September, Prof. George Grantham, an economist from McGill University (Montreal), came for three weeks and gave lectures and workshops on European economic history. The third in the series, Professor Grantham's lectures already attracted a large audience, and he was invited to lecture in other departments. Next summer, in June 1996 Prof. Sam Williamson, an economist from Miami University (Ohio) came for three weeks on the USIA program. Being an Executive Director of the Cliometrics Society he gave lecturies on the history of cliometrics in the U.S. and on the building and using of electronic resources in economic history research and teaching. He also gave a lecture at the Faculty of History at St.-Petersburg State University.

From the popularity of the lectures, it seems clear that new approaches in economic history research have become acceptable. This is in part due to the funds made available by USIS at the time of the opening of the Center, so that it could quickly establish its reputation with a distinguished list of presenters. We anticipate that the USIA lectures will continue in future years.

2. Institutional Development

During the past four years, grants for the CEH publication series have been renewed, that includes monographs by Dr. Irina Garskova, Prof. Efim Pivovar, and Prof. Aleksandr Khudokormov, members of the CEH Advisory Board. In 1994, Prof. Leonid Borodkin and Prof. Valerii Bovykin presented papers at the meetings of the International Economic History Association meetings in Milan in 1994, and in 1995, they were invited to head "B" sessions (in co-operation with their colleagues from USA and France) for the 1998 International Economic History Association meetings.

As determined in 1994, the governance structure of the Center included:
Director: Prof. Leonid Borodkin
Co-Presidents of the Advisory Board:
Prof. Robert Fogel (University of Chicago)
Prof. Ivan D.Koval'chenko (Russian Academy of Sciences/MSU)

Since 1996 (after I.D.Koval'chenko has died) Prof. Valerii Bovykin (Russian Academy of Sciences/MSU) is Co-President of the Advisory Board.
Among foreign members of the Advisory Board there are:
Prof. Paul David (Stanford University and All Souls College in Oxford, England)
Prof. Paul Gregory (University of Houston)
Prof. Gabriel Tortella (President, International Economic History Association - Madrid)
Prof. Carol Scott Leonard (St.Anthony's Colledge in Oxford, England)
Prof. Gavin Wright (Stanford University).

The first meeting of the Advisory Board was held on September 13, 1994, in Milan, Italy, at the XII International Economic History Association meetings. Its validation is still important, and with additional funding, it should play a larger role.

3. CEH's Major Activities

School for Historical Information Theory

The CEH founders' work in economic history grew out of their interest in information theory and computing; so their own scholarship in economic history is partly concerned modeling information systems in economic history. The link between these two disciplines has built a strong base for curricular development at MSU and the attraction of grants. In 1994-1997, each fall, Professor Borodkin offers an "International School for New Methods in Historical Disciplines" financed by the Volkswagen Foundation and focused on Information Theory Applications and New Economic and Social History. The School is organized on the basis of co-operation between Faculty of History at MSU (represented by the CEH and Laboratory for Historical Information Science) and International Association of History and Computing (AHC). European and British experts come to Moscow for two weeks to teach a group of students, selected from diverse regions in Russia and the NIS. Last years, the economic historian Dr. Peter Wardley from Bristol gave lectures on the uses of information technology for economic history (1994) and on the history of enterpreneurship and economic growth of Europe, USA and Russia in 1870-1914 (1995); Dr. Jan Lucassen from Amsterdam gave lectures on new labor history (1996); Prof. Carol S. Leonard from Oxford gave lectures on new economic history (1996). Each course included 12 lectures. More than 50 students of the School received certificates from those teachers.

The Conference, which was held in Moscow and sponsored by the MacArthur Foundation, brought together more than 60 economists and economic historians for presentations on new approaches to economic history. The U.S. papers covered issues ranging from sectional conflict and bound and free labor to new thinking about economic growth. These papers were designed to be of relevance to the Russian research agenda-in-formation, and the substantial Russian participation showed that they were.

The Russian presentations included new work by Professors Borodkin and Poletaev. Professor Selunskaia presented a paper concerning the need to separate out social and economic history to have a more clear understanding of contributions to growth, and arguments for changes in interpretations by Professor Bovykin on industrialization and Selunskaia on agrarian development.

The five American papers represented outstanding contributions to the theory of economic history. For the first time in the relatively substantial history of Russian-American economic history conferences, the Russian audience consisted of students as well as faculty from economics and history departments and from other republics and regions. It was also the first time that an open dialogue was constructed, in which the Russian side was not unanimously Marxist. Apart from the remarks of the Center's Director, who had organized the Conference and who pointed out that price history was largely missing from traditional Soviet economic history, there were other important remarks by students from economics faculties that showed the extent that writings of American cliometricians are in fact read in Russia. The papers presented at this conference may have a direct impact; they will be translated into Russian and published as a book.

Two papers in particular were discussed. First, the paper by Prof. Richard Sutch and Prof. Roger Ransom, in which the notion of "conflicting visions" was advanced as a way of understanding the outbreak of the Civil War in America, a way that moves apart from the poles of economic and political determinism. Factors in conflict are measurable, but the interaction between social and economic variables, crucial to the interpretation, is based on rich and varied historical research. This kind of approach reflects some of the departures from neoclassical economic perspectives, including a kind of "historicism" in American economic history. There was a theoretical paper presented by Prof. Paul David on the "Morphology" of changes in income and welfare similarly draws on new theories, endogenizing changes in human capital for a new understanding of economic growth.

Educational Program

The important development for the Center following the Conference has been the opening of an educational program in economic history. The program will rely mostly on the faculty at the Center for the core courses, but Prof. Paul Gregory, a senior American economic historian of Russia from Houston University, also agreed to give one of the courses in November-December, 1995. He offered a three-week course on economics as a background for economic history. His lectures covered fundamental principles, and they were successful. As is clear from his report, this course is only a beginning. The prior assumptions about economic history and the understanding of economics, previously taught only from a Marxist perpective, will only be supplemented by Western economics and hypothesis-testing by extensive course work, which cannot be accomplished in one or two years. Professor Gregory's visit was important because, by contrast with the other speakers, his field of knowledge is Russian economic history, and his publications are widely read in Russia.

Another course in this program was given by Prof. Carol Leonard (Oxford) in March-April of 1996. Her lectures covered applications of economic theory to economic history of Russia and USA. Both teachers were uniquely able to give instruction in methods and assist the Russian students and faculty set a new research agenda. It was particularly important that both teachers speak fluent Russian, so that even students and faculty who do not know English could attend their lectures and engage in dialogue.

4. Economic History, the Agenda for the Future

Among recent books published with the CEH's assistance was the survey, Economic Reforms in Twentieth-Century Russia (in Russian, 1996) edited by Prof. A. Khudokormov, chair of the sub-faculty dealing with the history of economic thought of the Economics Faculty of Lomonossov University. The inclusion of this title in the research series shows the tendency of scholars at the CEH to engage in close study of the historical background of problems of contemporary interest. Leonid Borodkin together with Carol Scott Leonard and Paul David is drawing his researchers into a larger project in the economics of science to examine the impact of some of the innovations in networking in Russia. A review of all of the activities of the Center was recently published in the CEH's own new journal, Survey of Economic History, for which the Director found funding and assistance, a highly signnificant demonstration of the establishment of Center for Economic History at Moscow State University.

The challenges faced by the CEH are the same as those confronting all scientific and research institutions in Russia, retention of faculty and students at a time when wages in education are lower on average than in other sectors of the economy. However there are possibilities to maintain both interest and support for the CEH by extensive and successful search for special public sector funding and resource building. Economist Paul Hohenberg assisted the CEH by a special grant of his library in economic history, a presentation he made upon retirement from his US university in 1997 (with mailing expenses funded by the Volkswagen Foundation).

CEH addresses